This invention relates to a clamp for flexible strip material, in particular tape-like material. The invention also relates to a hub and a reel provided with such a clamp and to a method for clamping tape-like material on said hub. In particular the invention also relates to a tape cassette fitted with a clamp.
Tape clamps for tape-like or strip-like material, for example magnetic recording media, are conventionally employed in tape reels. In particular tape is would in rolls onto hubs which are either flangeless or provided with one or more flanges, i.e. reel hubs or winding hubs. One or both ends of the tape is fastened to one or both of the hubs.
For magnetic tape reels, omega-shaped tape clamps are known from, for example, German Utility Model No. 1,928,049. Such a known tape clamp is provided with hooked legs for releasably locking the clamp in an associated recess in the periphery of the hub so that the tape is firmly clamped between the recess contour of the winding hub and the tape clamp. An arcuate part of the omega-shaped clamp is intended to close the peripheral recess in an essentially stepless and continous manner.
Other tape clamps which have been disclosed for tape winding hubs, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,661,345, 3,495,787 and 4,357,642 and German Laid-Open Application DOS No. 2,455,182, are integrally hingedly connected at one end to the hub and can be hinged about this connection into and out of a recess in the hub periphery to enable the tape to be fixed to, and released from, the hub.